Morris tribune., 1887-02-09
TEMPERANCE COLUMN.
EDITED BY THE w. G.. 7. L.
THE CURSE OLE DRINK.

Before me lies a printed sermon,
preached by the Rev. Nathaniel s.
Prime before the Presbytery of Long
Island. Nov. 5, 1911, before l was
born. 1t is on pernicious effects of
intemperance, and is founded Oh the
text "Who hath woe" etc? They
that tarry long at the wine" That
was fourteen years before the famous
sermons OF DR.. Lyman Beecher. In
this sermon my father protests against
the drinking usages OF the day en-
ploys all the present arguments
against the vice; denounces the
abuses Of the license law: shows the
folly and wrong of allowing liquor 10
be sold in grog-shOps, and urges all
men to abandon the habit of q wing
ardent spirits of wine in hospitality
to friends.
The preacher was then only twenty
six years old, aud the Presbytery WAS
amazed at the boldness of the young
man, the youngest member, who
thus sought to teach them. But the
sermon, with the grace of God, took
Instant effect. At their next meeting
they requested the publication of the
sermon. They adopted a resolution
condemning the hospitahle use Of
ardent spirits ana wine. The session
of the church OF which my father was
pastor adopted the same resolution.
The church did the same! A conf
plete reformation was the result.
There was ecclesiastical action by
Presbytery, session, and a church,
"a printed temperance sermon, and an
entire social temperance revolution
in the year 1911.
Easthampton was i'll that Presby-
terry of Long Island. More than two
hundred years before this movement
lin 1851, Easthampton passed town
ordinance forbidding the sale of
liquor to young men, and others
were not allowed "to have above half
pint at time among four men," In
those days, and long afterwards, the
custom of using intox icating drinks
as mark ofhospitality was universal.
Every gentlenan's sidehoard was
covered with decanters with various
liquors, and every visitor accepted
cordial invitation to drink. Children
grew up in the habit Of drinking
liquor. Everybody drank; thousands
were drunken.
Since those days there has been a
denied that the quantity of liquor
drank now is greater 10y far than it
was hundred years ago. When DR..
Mitchell, the great naturalist, was
asked why it was that white sheep
eat more than black ones, he spent a
week in the vain pursuit OF u solution,
and then his coachman, who had pro-
pounded the question, told him it was
because there were more of them.
That is the reason why there is more
liquor drank now than there was
formerly. There are more people to
drink it. Population, and wealth,
and idleness, and extravaganza, cause
a vastly increased consumption of
liquors. There may be more drunk
ards now than hundred years ago,
but there are hundreds and thousands
yes, tens of thousands-of young
men grown up in the ways of sober
ness, virtue, and honor, who would
have persisted in their shame but for
the temperance reform. We have
dissipated young men now, it IS sad to
say, sons of our first families, but
tIey are far less numerous in pro-
portion to the number of such
families. But the fact remains, and
no intelligent person can doubt the
fact. III 1t intemperance is the one
great social curse, calamity, and
crime of our day and the world. 1t is
affirmed by the collectors of statistics
in regard to intemperance that in the
year 1879 there was paid out for in
toxicating drinks by the people of
Germany the sum of $3.50, 900, 900, and
by those of France $5S0,000,000 Of
Great Britain $3.50, 100000 and of the
United States 1920, 600, 900, making a
grand total of $2,7O0,O00, 900.
How much misery do those figures
represent? Let it. be granted that a
vast amount of this money has been
spent for liquor that has been used
with perfect propriety, for healthful
and useful purposes. Yet the over
whelming mass of it has gone to
make poverty poorer, crime worse,
and misery more miserable.
TO BE CONTINUED.